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Listen: Iggy Azalea Channels Bollywood On ‘Million Dollar Dream’

When you listen to Iggy Azalea, you go into it accepting that you’re getting an artificial product, in that the Australian MC adopts a fake southern accent to deliver her rhymes. So the authenticity/appropriation divide becomes moot, since she is openly inauthentic-sounding — and that’s part of her appeal. Perhaps because it’s so overtly a musical “shtick” she’s actually given more flexibility than someone trying to stay “authentic,” allowing her to delight in straight-up hip-hop, and glimmering pop, and patois and whatever else. Maybe I’m overthinking it. Or maybe I’m underthinking it, I dunno. She’s a strange case, and it gets stranger with her new bhangra-centric song “Million Dollar Dream.”

The track is from Disney’s Jon Hamm-starring Million Dollar Arm, based on the true story of two men in India who won a baseball reality show to become professional pitchers in the US. Over an “Indian punjabish” beat composed by A.R. Rahman, Iggy spits some aspirational bars about achieving your dreams — fitting for the movie’s story and hers. That’s Bollywood singer Sukhwinder Singh on the hook.